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Ramsey’s Waterford Chronicle Thursday 1 February and Saturday 3 February 1816.

Dreadful calamity

We now have to state the particulars of as melancholy and afflicting event as has ever occurred on the adjacent coast. We feel much indebted to Mr. Kennedy, Mr. McGregor, Mr. Beyan and other Gentleman, for the trouble they have taken in furnishing us with details, and we shall endeavour to give the whole information we have received in a connected point of view.  The Transport Seahorse, No. 2, Thomas Scott, Master, sailed from a port in England a few days ago for Waterford or Cork; with a large detachment of the 59th Regt. on board , consisting of about 16 Officers, 287 men, 33 women, and 34 children. –
The port from which they departed is said to have been Ramsgate, the London papers state, that it was Margate, and that the Transport was one of the finest in the service. Some gentlemen, who have seen her timbers after the wreck, express very strong doubts of this statement. On the morning of the 30th alt, the vessel was driven into Tramore bay, by a desperate gale from the south. The severity of the weather had compelled her to cull her mizzen mast, before she came within the Bay. On the forenoon of the day mentioned, she continued beating off, with a view to get around Brownstown Head and thus to make the harbour in safety, but totally without effect. The fore top mast fell, killed the mate, and broke the leg of one of the seamen. Two anchors were then thrown out, but these were dragged by the violence of the storm, and rendered totally unavailing. The vessel was then driven forward to within a half a mile of the shore, in presence of hundreds of people, who could give the unhappy persons on board no aid. It was low water at the time, we believe, about the hour of one, p.m. which, on such a beach, rendered every chance of escape almost utterly hopeless. –
Most of those on board then retired below, and resigned themselves to their impending and awful fate! The vessel struck upon the sands, almost midway between Tramore and the farthest end of the Rabbit burrow, and, in the course of a very few minutes, went entirely to pieces! The number of those on board, as stated by one account, which we regard as accurate, amounted to 394. Of these 363 were drowned and only 31 saved! Fifteen of the crew perished, the Captain and two sailors having alone escaped, and such is their distracted situation, that they can hardly describe the nexus by which they were preserved. One of the Officers, who clung to something belonging to the vessel, but what he does not recollect, had nearly abandoned himself to his fate, when a country man rushed into the sea, at the peril of his life, and rescued the stranger from death. This was a *** trait of benevolence, and greatly would we have rejoiced, if we had not been compelled to throw a cloud upon it, by instances of a very different conduct. Several boxes and chests were thrown on shore, and robbed with a most criminal ferocity. –
In this case, the Officers have been the chief sufferers, and the present forlorn condition of the survivors amongst them is almost beyond description. Mr Walsh, Coast Surveyor, with his accustomed humanity, the other Coast Officers, and Mr. Kennedy &c. &c. used every effort to give assistance, but it was not within the compass of human power to prevent the sad catastrophe. One Sergeant, one Drummer, and 23 rank and file, have been saved. Thirty three persons, and among them 14 children and some women, have been buried at Drumcannon Church. No other bodies had been seen on the beach when the last accounts left Tramore yesterday. The distance from this City is about six miles.

Names of Officers Lost.

Major Douglas; Captain McGregor; Surgeon Hagan; Assistant Surgeon Lambe; Lieutenants Veale, Dent (Adjutant) Scott, and Gillespie; Ensigns Ross and Hill; Quarter-Master Baird

Names of Officers saved

Lieutenants Macpherson, Hartford, and Cowper; Ensign Seward

The death of Mr. Baird was accompanied with that of his wife and two children. Mr. Hill is not the son of the Gentleman of that name now resident in this City. The fate of Surgeon Hagan is particularly interesting. He was chief support of a widowed mother, two sisters and two brothers.-
To them his warmest affections were devoted, and the greatest part of his pay was extended for their happiness. This woeful narrative may imply other cases of no less moment, of which we are ignorant, but this is one which cannot fail to draw from the Commander in Chief of the British Forces a share of that benevolent attention which the misfortunes of military men have at all times experienced from him. Yesterday, another vessel, supposed to be a Coal Brig, was forced into the same dangerous Bay, but, by skilful efforts, which astonished the spectators, she made her way towards the place of the bathing boxes, and no doubt was entertained of her safety, and of that of her crew.
On Tuesday night, two country people of Tramore died of excessive drinking.
Yesterday forenoon, a woman was found dead, on the road to Tramore, within a short distance of the avenue of Ballinamona. Whether she lost her life by the severity of the weather, or by providing against it, we know not, but we are certain, that she did not come to her death by violence.





Waterford Chronicle, 3 February 1816.


We are very sad to add to our former account of the wreck at Tramore, and we are not at present inclined to enter minutely into the subject. Private communications of a painful nature have reached use, but we must take time to deliberate upon them. They are anonymous, and we cannot on such authority give publicity to the charges they convey, without a particular investigation. If they shall be found to be true, we shall fearlessly discharge our duty, and Government shall be put into possession of the facts. In the meantime we have to lament, that the most enormous system of plunder has taken place in a manner, which, in the very first instance, demands the scrutiny of Government, unless that Government shall neglect its most imperative duties, which no man for one moment can suppose. More bodies have been cast ashore and among these that of Mr Dent. These bodies have been buried and that is all we have to say at this point. We have heard that the mess plate of the 59th Regt was plundered, and that several muskets have fallen into the hands of those who could be better off without them. We stated erroneously the name of the Master of the transport, which is Gibbs. The second vessel which came into Tramore bay was the Apollonia, Captain John Perry, of Carnarvon, bound for Cork from London, loaded with teas, groceries, &c. The crew has been saved by the philanthropic exertions of young men from this city. The vessel has gone to pieces but something of the cargo may be saved. We shall revert to these matters.  The circumstances we have formerly described, and those detailed by Cork papers, would furnish grounds for column: but we do not enter the particulars. The heart that does not feel a simple narrative is dead to amplification.

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